Bugonia

Just midway through his career, Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos jumped from Greek cinema into American movies—including some indie cult classics like The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer—to more prestige awards movies with more accessible storytelling that doesn’t compromise its edge or artistry. Both The Favourite and Poor Things were nominated for Best Picture, and Lanthimos was nominated for Best Director for both films. Both films went on to pave the way for Lead Actress Awards for Olivia Colman and Emma Stone. They were also both written by Tony McNamara, and it proved Lanthimos’s vision and directing are so singular that they add to the film’s layers of bizarre richness. Lanthimos has triumphed as a filmmaker, and his latest film, Bugonia, which is an adapted screenplay that is based on the 2003 South Korean sci-fi film Save the Green Planet! by Will Tracy (The Menu, Succession), once again proves that Lanthimos can succeed as a filmmaker with other writers.

Bugonia offers the same stylization and bizarreness as Lanthimos’s previous endeavors, but this tale is more of a sci-fi dark comedy, and it offers some cautionary commentary on the dangers of conspiratorial thinking. The film focuses on Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), the CEO of a mega pharmaceutical company called Auxolith. Changing the gender of the CEO works quite well with its postmodern sensibilities, and Tracy’s script along with Stone’s performance brings in pseudo-liberal posturing that CEOs do as they use passive-aggressive manipulation to have workers work until 5:30 p.m. by undermining any work-life balance. We are introduced by one of Auxolith’s warehouse workers named Teddy Gattz (Jesse Plemons). Teddy is a major conspiracy theorist, and he’s fully convinced that Michelle is part of an invasive alien species named the “Andromedins” that has been on earth for tens of thousands of years to control humanity and maintain its own power structure. Teddy and his neurodivergent cousin (Aidan Delbis) end up kidnapping Michelle from her home, and they hold her captive in Teddy’s basement. They shave her head and put an antihistamine cream all over her face and head, which they believe will prevent her from sending signals back to her spaceship.

Courtesy Focus Features

Michelle tries to threaten, bargain, and negotiate and eventually just goes along with Teddy’s subjectivism. Their goal is for Michelle to use diplomacy with her fellow Andromedins and leave the planet in order to spare human life and save it from the pollutants and chemicals that have contributed to climate change and the destruction of the earth’s ecosystem. Teddy threatens Michelle that she has four days to negotiate a non-hostile meeting with the Andromedins just before the next lunar eclipse.

The film unfolds with suspense and some dramatically charged moments, and both Stone and Plemmons totally embody their characters as their fierce exchanges service the material. You can sense they both hold contempt towards one another, but there is also a level of odd respect they also hold, as they both understand the power dynamics each holds towards the other. Through flashbacks, the narrative reveals Teddy’s mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), was a test subject for one of Auxolith’s drugs, which left her in a severe coma. Michelle was able to cover up the incident, and she funds Sandy’s treatments at a local hospital. Teddy continues his daily routines working at his local shipping warehouse, as he leaves Michelle tied up in the basement. Both Teddy and Michelle end up having some brutal confrontations together, which leads to Michelle mocking Teddy’s knowledge, and she rebuts him, saying he doesn’t live in an objective reality, as he is part of a certain groupthink from the internet. Meanwhile, the police put out a local manhunt for Michelle as her disappearance leads to national coverage.

Courtesy Focus Features

I don’t want to discuss too much of the plotting and what transpires upon all the chaos, and I certainly will not discuss the gonzo ending that you actually can easily anticipate coming since it’s a Yorgos Lanthimos film after all. The ending could easily be viewed as a disservice to the potentially rich subtext that Lanthimos and Will Tracy build up. Personally, a more ambiguous ending would have been more serviceable to the subtext and ideas about the dangers of online echo chamber thinking. Nevertheless, Lanthimos opens up discussions about our current milieu and the dangers of online echo chambers that are deep-rooted in conspiracy theories, hatred, and denying reality. The film bounces back and forth on if Michelle really an alien or human until the reveal and third act that doesn’t quite grab as the first two-thirds of the film.

Aside from Lanthimos’s usual skills of wide shots and wide-angle symmetrical tracking shots, with a blend of drama, dark humor, and sci-fi horror that simultaneously comes at you all at once. Lanthimos continues to craft engaging works with absurdity and deadpan hilarity. His films are undeniably haunting and will always offer a memorable experience. To put it bluntly, Lanthimos has always been drawn into mental health. He has often examined isolated characters living in confined settings that are detached from societal norms. His films can easily be dismissed as cynical, perhaps even misanthropic, but he brings a rich style with a blend of absurdity with a dash of surrealism to heighten the psychological distress his characters endure. These are very discomforting emotions experienced in anxiety-inducing scenarios, and it allows the viewer to feel the same discomfort.

Yorgos Lanthimos often explores mental health themes by depicting characters struggling with isolation, control, and the absurdity of societal norms. Dogtooth demonstrated the psychological distress that is inflicted on children who are isolated and brainwashed by their parents, who shelter them from the outside world. And The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Poor Things are all brilliant pieces of cinema that explore human control and liberating oneself from authority. Bugonia continues this artistic momentum, confirming that he is one of the most fascinating filmmakers of our era. This is a very complex film about power dynamics and a warning that continuous cruelty and oppression in society can cross a line into increased isolation and complete chaos.

BUGONIA is now playing in limited theaters and will open in theaters everywhere on Friday, October 31sts.